Best local drug scare

Krokodil
Apparently someone in Russia didn’t think heroin was dangerous enough. So along came desomorphine, a/k/a “krokodil,” a mixture of codeine and whatever else its unscrupulous manufacturers have lying around, be it gasoline, paint thinner or something else cheap and ridiculously toxic. Those who inject it for awhile report abscesses so severe that they expose muscles, tissues and bones. They rot alive, pretty much. As of late summer, krokodil has already ruined several lives in Joliet—those users claim they purchased it in Chicago, presuming it was heroin. Maybe it’s time to find a new hobby.